DNA nanorobots for cancer
A sheet of DNA origami rolled into a tube carries a blood-clotting enzyme. Injected into the blood, it seeks out the vessels feeding a tumor, then exposes the enzyme, which clots the vessels and starves the tumor.
Arizona State University, 12 Feb 2018How far from your life: Still years away; many prototypes stall here.
Independently sourcedFrom lab to your life
Why it’s on step 2
- 1Lab discovery
- 2Working prototype
- 3Real-world testing
- 4Approved or on sale
- 5Everyday life
The rule
Works beyond the first experiment: tested in animals, built as a device prototype, or made on a pilot production line.
- Researchers at Arizona State University and China's National Center for Nanoscience and Technology reported in Nature Biotechnology that DNA nanorobots shrank tumors in mice with breast, melanoma, ovarian and lung cancers; in the melanoma model, three of eight mice saw their tumors disappear. Arizona State University, 12 Feb 2018
The short version
What you need to know
- Why it matters
In mice it cut off tumors' blood supply within a day without harming healthy tissue, and in a melanoma model it more than doubled survival.
Arizona State University, 12 Feb 2018- Is it really nano?
Truly nano
The robot is a folded DNA structure measured in nanometers.
Arizona State University, 12 Feb 2018- Who’s behind it
Arizona State University and the National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing
On the record
Every step, dated
Newest first. Company-reported means the only source so far is the company itself.
- Animal study
Researchers at Arizona State University and China's National Center for Nanoscience and Technology reported in Nature Biotechnology that DNA nanorobots shrank tumors in mice with breast, melanoma, ovarian and lung cancers; in the melanoma model, three of eight mice saw their tumors disappear.
Arizona State University, 12 Feb 2018
Sources
Where every line comes from
Each source with the passage, word for word, that backs what we wrote.
- Arizona State University, 12 Feb 2018
Next, the flat sheet was folded in on itself like a sheet of paper into a circle to make a hollow tube.
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- DNA origamiStep 1 · LabDNA origami folds a long strand of DNA into chosen shapes and patterns a few nanometers in size, held in place by short DNA strands, like a pegboard on which other molecules can be placed exactly.
- Molecular machines and motorsStep 1 · LabChemists can build single molecules with parts that move relative to each other when energy is added: rings that slide along rods, and motors that spin in one direction.